News:

"There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current petroleum paradigm 🐉🦕🦖 is no different. The trick here is trying to figure out how we all make it to the new ⚡ paradigm without dying ☠️ right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise." - William Rivers Pitt

Donald Trump just revealed that he wants to bring the country together likely through a new major war! Will a war distract from the Nunes memo release? Will the United States face off against North Korea or Iran or both?

Days ago, Brandon sent along some thoughts that he’d like to share with you. “I know a lot of us look at the world today and we despair,” he wrote. “We see corporations consuming our resources at an exponential rate to sell us meaningless trinkets and distract us while our planet is dying. The leaders that we have voted into office are slaves to money and are not servants of the people that they represent. And we live our lives in relative safetybuilt off the bloodshed and misery of those that the mainstream media would say are different than us and whom we need to fear.”

Brandon went on: “I'm sorry to say that nothing will save us from this mess but ourselves. The world scenario notwithstanding, I'm not here to smash your hearts, minds, and spirits against the face of the reality that we have set before us. I'm here to remind us to carry with us a little bit of hope.

“I served in the military for eight years, six of those for the USAF Intelligence apparatus that mutated into the drone program that we see today. And even though through Trump's🦀 administration we see more killings of civilians from the air in Iraq and Syria in the first year of his administration than the entire Obama administration combined, we can also see that this comes from the elites’ desperation to hold on to whatever scraps of power that they can through fear and intimidation.”[1]

As someone in the military’s drone program, Brandon was always under orders. As a whistleblower, he says, “I think that I have done a good job in setting the example of somebody who has made grievous mistakes out of foolishness and naivety, has taken responsibility for my own faults in my own actions, 🕊 and has decided to do something about it.And with the legitimacy that I have gained, through the madness and the grief, I offer my voice and actions once again to step into the arena and face the monsters of humanity as myself. I have nothing to offer but myself. I think that's enough.”

In a show of unity, athletes from North and South Korea marched at the Winter Olympics' Opening Ceremony under the same flag. But the Trump administration is doing its best to thwart hopes for peace on the peninsula, says Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ

After months of bellicose rhetoric and fears of nuclear war, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have agreed to historic face-to-face talks. Independent journalist Tim Shorrock and Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ discuss the prospects for an agreement and the overlooked role of South Korea in getting both sides to the table

Qatar is under pressure to bury an undercover Al Jazeera documentary that exposes the Israel Lobby in the US. Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada says the film's key revelations include the close cooperation between the neocon Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Israeli government

The writing has been on the wall in big block letters from the earliest moments of the Trump era 😈🐉🦕🦖. In May 2017, in his first town hall meeting with State Department staff, Tillerson 🦖 warned that human rights should not become an obstacle in the US pursuit of national interests, a shot across the department's bow that contributed to a wave of subsequent resignations. Similarly, the administration's first National Security Strategy barely mentioned human rights.

Meet Neocon John Bolton 👹, the Most Hawkish National Security Adviser Imaginable

Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, is an extreme hawk who wants to bomb Iran and North Korea and demanded regime change in Libya, Syria, and Venezuela - Ben Norton reports.

LONDON — Intensifying Russia’s clash with Europe and the United States, the Kremlin on Thursday announced that it would expel 150 Western diplomats and close the American consulate in St. Petersburg.

The action was in retaliation for the expulsion of more than 150 Russian officials from other countries — which was itself a reaction to a nerve-agent attack on British soil that Britain and its allies have blamed on Moscow.

The United States ambassador to Russia, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced. Sixty American diplomats will be expelled from Russia — the same as the number of Russian diplomats whom Washington is expelling. The Americans were given until April 5 to leave the country.

The crisis over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter has driven tensions between the Kremlin and the West to their highest pitch in decades. The tit-for-tat responses raise the prospect of further, more serious escalations, either public or clandestine.

Relations were already rocky over Moscow’s roles in the wars in Syria and Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea, its meddling in elections in the United States and elsewhere, the assassination of Kremlin foes in Russia and abroad, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns against other countries and what Western officials have described as a broad, largely covert effort to destabilize and discredit liberal democracies.Continue reading the main storyRelated Coverage

Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018 Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018 Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

Recent Commentsuw 1 minute ago

It was expected. Washington reaction to expel Russians was outside of any reason and was based on flimsy pretextDJS1955 1 minute ago

All of this is due to the lack of leadership on the part of the U.S in responding to and setting limits on previous outrageous activities of...Midwest Josh 1 minute ago

Jon Huntsman should be in his 2nd term as President, not currently our Ambassador to Russia. He was the smartest guy on stage in 2012. By...

Russia as a whole and many powerful Russians individually are already under economic sanctions by the West, and London has vowed to tighten its scrutiny and control of the vast Russian wealth — much of it held by allies of President Vladimir V. Putin — that has flowed into Britain in recent years. Britain has also said it will re-examine several suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents.

Mr. Putin and his government have denied any involvement in the March 4 attack on Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and have tried to cast blame on Britain, the United States, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and others.PhotoThe United States consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be closed, the Kremlin announced. Credit Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Skripals were found unconscious in a busy shopping area in the small English city of Salisbury, where Mr. Skripal lives. He remains hospitalized in critical condition, but his daughter is showing improvement, British officials announced on Thursday. British officials say that hundreds of people could have been exposed to Novichok, the toxin used against the Skripals.

Mr. Lavrov said that Russia had called for a meeting next Tuesday of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to discuss the Skripal case.

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and her government contend that the pair were poisoned with one of an extremely powerful class of nerve agents known as “Novichok,” developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s and ’80s. They claim to have solid evidence that Russia was probably behind the attack, and that Mr. Putin himself probably approved it.

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

The British government has not made its evidence public, but has shared it with major allies, who have said that they agree with London’s conclusions. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body that polices a chemical weapons ban treaty, is investigating.

President Trump, who has long been loath to criticize Mr. Putin or his government, has made no public statement on the nerve-agent attack or who was to blame for it. But officials in his administration have publicly backed Mrs. May’s statements, and on Monday the president ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials who work in the United States, and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

More than 20 other countries, primarily European, also announced expulsions on Monday, and a few more joined in on Tuesday, as did NATO headquarters in Brussels. The expulsions were a remarkable show of international unity and coordination, in solidarity with Britain, which had already forced 23 Russian officials to leave the country; Moscow responded by expelling 23 Britons.

In all, 27 countries are ejecting more than 150 Russians, including people listed by their embassies and consulates as diplomats, and military and cultural attachés. Western officials say that many of the Russians are spies and that the expulsions will hinder Russian espionage efforts.

Mr. Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was imprisoned in Russia for selling secrets to the British, was sent to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap. Why he would be targeted years later is unclear, but political and security analysts have said that the attack served as a warning to those who would cross Mr. Putin that, even in exile, they are never beyond the Kremlin’s reach.

On March 12, Nikolai A. Glushkov, a former Russian business executive and critic of the government, died suddenly at his home in London, and the police are treating the case as a murder investigation.

Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018 Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018 Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

Highlights from TRNN's event honoring MLK on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, featuring his 1967 speech, "Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam," and a discussion with actor Danny Glover, Our Revolution President Nina Turner, and Executive Producer Eddie Conway

Russia Furious As U.S. Navy Destroyer Approaches Syria Without Notification"Moreover, US President Donald Trump said that he would think about the missile attack on Syria despite any resolutions at the UN Security Council. All this smells of something are outside the framework of universally recognised international norms," Shamanov added...

However, after yesterday news that the office of Trump's personal lawyer was raided by the FBI and that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised, it now appears that in a desperate diversion attempt from his domestic troubles, a military response against Syria by Trump is now inevitable...

That Trump will declare war and condemn all of us to death to defend his position and ego is a given. What is incorrect is the assertion "that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised." It is most emphatically NOT.

Note that, according to the American Bar Association, conversations between attorney and client when there is reason to suspect both are involved in an ongoing criminal activity are NOT actually protected by law and are subject to investigation. It's called the Crime-Fraud Exception, which says: The legal community does not deem discussions concerning future wrongdoings, such as fraud, that occur during an attorney-client communications worthy of protection. While the practice of law encourages full and frank communications between the attorney and client, ONLY communications concerning past wrongdoings are protected.

Make of that what you will.

Surly,

I didn't know about the Crime-Fraud Exception. Thanks for the info.

Webster Tarpley has an interesting take on what Trump's reaction will be when he finds his family jewels in a vice grip. Tarpley believes Trump is a coward and will fold under any real pressure, NOT from Russia, but from the Pentagon war lovers that surround him.

That, of course, ends up resulting in more warlike moves, regardless of what Trump wants to do to distract we-the-people.

All that said, I believe the war lovers at the Pentagon are more rational than Trump. Their whole SCAM (that began with 911) is OPERATION ENDURING MEGA-PENTAGON BUDGET. So, they always want some level of war excuse going on that continues to fleece us on behalf of weapons manufacturers, but, is never on the scale that actually would require all-out war.

The problem with that too clever by a half calculation is that constant saber rattling is precisely what has ALWAYS triggered massive conflicts in the past.

Many will disagree with me on this, but I am certain that Trump will be removed from office by hook or by crook if he does not do what the M.I.C. wants him to do. Trump, though the trumpers were fooled into thinking he was an "outsider", IS a creature of the Deep State.

These creatures are not always obedient to their masters in our disguised military dictatorship. The moment they step out of line, a "lone nut" shows up. Nobody wants to talk about it, but that is precisely how they "reined in" Reagan in when he started making noises the Bush powers that be did not like.